Twist of Fate: Rights and Wrongs
by whoa nellie
Summary: When Voyager encounters an unusual situation on a planet, Chakotay finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place.


Title: Twist of Fate: Rights and Wrongs

Author: Whoa Nellie Voyager

Rating: PG

Codes: C/f

Synopsis: When Voyager encounters an unusual situation on a planet, Chakotay finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place.

Author's Notes: Feel free to archive to any pertinent site. This story does stand on its own, not necessary to have read the previous stories except for more detailed background information on Ceshlyta and how she got there.

Previous stories from the Twist of Fate storyline (in order): Blessings of the Sky Spirits, Wyrd, What Comes Naturally, Fresh Perspective, Culinary Delights, Chaos Theory, Unforeseen Circumstance, A Matter of Definition, Love and Copulation, Million Kilometer High Club, Comings and Goings, Bare Necessities, Vulnerability, When in Rome and Reporting for Duty.

Background: Ceshlyta is Chakotay's wife and soulmate. She is descended from the Inheritors through a different tribe and was joined with Chakotay in a wedding at the Temple of the Sky Spirits before they put her on Voyager. She was a Professor of Botany on Earth when the Sky Spirits joined their souls, intertwined their life paths and put her on Voyager. Her nickname, used by most of the other crew members, is Sassy.

Acknowledgements: Paramount owns all the marbles, we just have a lot more fun playing with them.

Feedback is always appreciated, posted or e-mail.

RIGHTS AND WRONGS

Chakotay looked up from where he was setting the table for dinner when the door slid open. He couldn't suppress a grin at the sight of his wife, Sassy, and Captain Janeway. The women had obviously come from the holodeck and were still in costume. "Dare I ask?"

"Bow before Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons!" Janeway commanded.

"Amazon warriors?" he laughed. "Does it occur to the two of you that a disturbing number of your holodeck adventures involve swords?"

Janeway arched an eyebrow and gestured imperiously at her First Officer. "Off with his head!" she commanded.

"I think that's the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland," Sassy pointed out.

Snapping her fingers, Janeway pursed her lips. "Damn."

Chakotay took their swords and set them in the chair. "You do realize that the only reason I let the two of you play together is that Kathryn outranks me."

"It's good to be the queen," Janeway quipped.

"Now I know my darling husband didn't just insinuate that he outranks me," Sassy said pointedly, the twinkle in her eyes softening the challenge of her words.

Chakotay threw his hands up in mock capitulation. "I surrender; the two of you together is more than one mere man can handle. Now, if you ladies are finished drawing and quartering me, dinner is ready."

Janeway looked over at Sassy conspiratorially. "I think I'm done. What about you?"

"Maybe after dinner, we could tar and feather him," Sassy suggested.

Holding first Sassy's then Kathryn's chair, he was still shaking his head in bemusement when he took his seat. He had never joined them in their holodeck adventures. They seemed to have such a good time that he didn't want to spoil their fun. He listened to them recount their exploits as Amazon warriors battling the great Heracles, laughing along with them as they finished each other's sentences and added in details that the other forgot. Sassy loved life and, for all of her spirituality, truly lived in the moment--in every moment of her life. She smiled as often as possible and took joy in every little thing. It was hard not to share that sentiment whenever she was around; Kathryn certainly relaxed and laughed a lot more around Ceshlyta.

"Chakotay," Sassy got his attention. "Have you remembered to talk to Kathryn about the quarters?"

Janeway arched an eyebrow. "No, he hasn't remembered to talk to me about quarters."

Chakotay swallowed and dabbed his mouth with his napkin. "We had talked at our wedding reception about remodeling some of the crew quarters to accommodate families, but we never got around to working up any concrete plans."

Janeway finished her dinner and laid her napkin on the table. "Is there suddenly a rush?" she asked with a grin.

"No," Sassy said, "at least not yet. Chakotay and I have decided to start working on a family, but we've just started."

"If we're going to re-model the crew quarters, we should draw up some plans and start working on policies. It would be better if these things were in place before anybody needed them," Chakotay added.

Sassy gestured toward the sofa and Janeway followed her over while Chakotay retrieved the pot of coffee and cups. Curled up on one end of the sofa, Sassy pointed out. "It's not like we'd need more space within the next year even if I did get pregnant quickly, but I don't know what considerations would need to go into a construction project like that."

"We'd probably need to land on an uninhabited planet for a lot of the re-modeling," Janeway mused. "But we'll be needing to set down for some routine maintenance pretty soon anyway."

Chakotay poured the ladies some coffee and then a cup for himself. "I've been working on some ideas for moving bulkheads around to create a number of small, two-bedroom suites without creating any inconvenience for the rest of the crew."

Janeway nodded. "I'll put that on the agenda for the next senior staff meeting. We'll get some plans on the drawing board so we can look at resource requirements and be on the lookout for a good place to land. Speaking of planets, I take it there have been no new developments with the current planet."

Chakotay shook his head. "Still no response to hails and no indication that they're even aware of our presence."

"I reviewed the scans of the surface that Celes brought me from Astrometrics," Sassy said. "Aside from pretty generic trees, grass and some shrubbery, there's remarkably little botanical life on the planet's surface. I didn't see any indications of flowers or food-producing plants."

"Theories?" Janeway asked.

Sassy shrugged. "Just a guess; it's possible that they depleted the natural resources and built the floating city as a result."

"An entire civilization just floating nearly three kilometers above the surface of the planet," Chakotay observed. "I'd love to know more about them; why they live up there, how it started . . . "

Janeway concurred. "Unfortunately they're either xenophobic or not capable of sending and receiving transmissions."

"But the city's position is maintained through some type of anti-gravitational generators," Chakotay pointed out. "That would suggest a technologically-advanced culture."

"Nevertheless," Janeway replied. "Starfleet regulations are very clear about contact with non-warp capable societies. Without an invitation and lacking any evidence of warp capability, we'll have to avoid the city. Sensors haven't shown any movement on the planet surface, so as long as we stay on the other side of the planet, we should be able to check out those mineral deposits without incident."

Sassy had a thought. "Can sensors scan for signs of ancient civilizations on the surface? If they did live on the planet's surface at one time, there may be some clues as to when and why they built their floating city."

Chakotay shook his head in disappointment. "Sensors have combed every land mass; if they did live on the surface, they took everything with them when they moved up. As far as we can tell, their floating city is their original city just elevated."

"All things considered," Janeway said, "I think I'd like to lead this away team. It's just a routine geological survey and it's been awhile since I got some fresh air. I'll stretch my legs a bit and you can baby-sit the ship for me," she told Chakotay.

Chakotay sat back in the chair. "Objection."

"Noted."

Chakotay snorted with disgust. "But you're going anyway. Fine, as far as the away team, Tuvok is a given and you might want to consider taking Tassoni. He was a geologist onboard the Equinox."

"Good thinking," Janeway nodded. "Given the lack of botanical characteristics, I think Ensign Wildman would be the best fourth; nothing personal, Sassy."

Sassy grinned. "I understand; you don't need a botanist on this mission."

Janeway put her empty coffee cup down and stood up. "I'll drop the necessary information off tonight for Tassoni and Wildman to review for the away mission tomorrow. Thank you both for a delightful evening."

"May a humble servant make a suggestion?" Chakotay asked.

"Yes."

"Queen Hippolyta may wish to change her clothes before she takes those PADDs to crew quarters."

Janeway chuckled. "You know, I'd almost forgotten what I was wearing."

Sassy retrieved Kathryn's sword and walked her to the door. "Good night."

The next morning, Janeway and her away team materialized on the planet's surface. The first thing that struck her about her surroundings was the lack of color--variety of color, rather. As scans indicated, there were no flowers; oddly, the greens and browns of the grass, bushes and trees seemed almost monochromatic. She scanned with her tricorder as the others did the same.

"No life signs within tricorder range," Tuvok reported.

"The soil contains a significant percentage of minerals," Tassoni said. "I'm also reading a large, concentrated vein about a half of a kilometer from here." He knelt down to collect a sample of the soil for further analysis.

Wildman nodded in agreement and added, "Environment conforms to sensor readings, there are no measurable toxins or radioactivity in the soil or air."

Janeway gestured for Tuvok to take point and waited for Wildman and Tassoni to follow before taking up a position at the rear. "Janeway to Voyager, we're heading for a vein of mineral deposits a half-kilometer from our beam-down coordinates. Everything's quiet down here, Janeway out."

Onboard Voyager, Chakotay acknowledged her message and closed the channel. He sat in the command chair, watching the panel in the arm of the chair for indications of trouble. "Harry, keep a close eye on that city and report any signs of unusual activity or energy signatures."

"Yes, sir," came the response from ops. Just as Harry replied, a light on his console began flashing. "Incoming message from the away team; opening a channel."

"Away team to Voyager," Janeway's hail was ragged and sounds of a scuffle could be heard in the background. "Emergency--" her voice suddenly cut off and a blast of phaser fire filled the channel.

"Transporter Room One, get the away team out of there," Chakotay ordered. "Harry, what's going on down there?"

Kim, meanwhile, was working feverishly at his station. "I don't know, sir, sensors don't pick up any other life forms in the vicinity of the away team."

"Confirmed," Ensign Lang reported from the security console.

"Ayala, report," Chakotay barked.

"Transporter Room One," Ayala began. "I have three members of the away team, Commander."

"Who?" Chakotay was already on his way to the turbolift. The reply stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Captain Janeway didn't beam back and I can't find her life sign anywhere."

By the time Chakotay reached the transporter room, Tuvok had taken over at the console. He joined the Vulcan behind the console and scanned the displays.

"Captain Janeway's communicator materialized along with us," Tuvok reported. "It is possible that it came off in the struggle; however, we are unable to locate her life sign on the surface. I have scanned the area and her body is not there. It is likely that the captain has been kidnapped."

"By who?" Chakotay asked. "There were no other life signs anywhere near you."

"Indeed?" Tuvok arched an eyebrow.

Chakotay hit his communicator. "Mr. Paris, report to Sickbay to give the Doc a hand. Mr. Kim, report to Astrometrics, I'll meet you there." He gestured for the away team's tricorders as he addressed them. "Report to Sickbay."

"Commander--" Tuvok began.

"Those aliens may have left traces behind when you fought with them," Chakotay said. "We'll start running scans and brief as soon as you've been cleared by the Doctor," he paused for a full second before looking at Crewman Tassoni. "You and Ensign Wildman will join us in that briefing."

"Sir," Tassoni spoke up. "I took a soil sample down on the surface. I'm not sure what--"

"Ayala," Chakotay interrupted Tassoni, taking the container that he was holding out and handing it to the other man. "Get this to Professor Ceshlyta and tell her that I want an analysis as soon as possible."

By the time everyone had assembled in the conference room, word that Captain Janeway was missing had spread around the entire ship. Chakotay started to take his customary seat only to realize that he had to run this briefing. He sat in the chair at the head of the table and looked at Tuvok. "What happened down there?"

"We were attacked," Tuvok replied. "I was in front with Ensign Wildman directly behind me followed by Crewman Tassoni and then the captain. Non-humanoid aliens appeared to rise directly from the ground all around our position. They were unresponsive to greetings so Captain Janeway suggested that we return to Voyager. They attacked her when she reached for her communicator and then attacked us as we attempted to come to her aid. She managed to get a distress signal to you, but she must have lost her communicator in doing so. Phaser fire appeared to have little, if any, effect."

Chakotay looked from Harry to Seven. "Are there any readings that would suggest the presence of an energy field underground; something that might explain why they don't show up on sensors and why the captain doesn't either?"

"No, sir," Harry replied. "I've reviewed the tricorder readings that the away team took on the surface. They didn't even register the aliens who attacked at all and there's nothing that would suggest an energy field."

"Sensors have recorded more than six thousand individuals residing in the city," Seven noted. "Therefore it is unlikely that they are involved."

Tom nodded in agreement. "They would have shown up as a life form on the tricorders at the very least."

Harry passed a PADD to Chakotay. "I was monitoring the city the whole time. There wasn't so much as a blip during the away team's time on the planet."

"Commander Chakotay," Tassoni spoke up. "This is going to sound odd, but, when Commander Tuvok said that they seemed to come up from the ground, they did literally appear out of the ground."

"Meaning what?" Chakotay's tone sounded harsh, even to him; but, there was a nagging feeling that he couldn't quite put his finger on. It got worse every time he looked at the former Equinox crew member.

Tassoni thought for a second. "It was like they formed from the ground. I'd swear that the one who attacked me had a nose that looked like a metamorphic rock similar to slate."

Chakotay tapped several controls on the panel in front of him. "Sassy, what have you got?"

At her workstation in the garden, Sassy adjusted the viewer so she could talk while she worked. "I've got a bit of a mystery. Preliminary analysis revealed minerals and proteins in the soil, but that doesn't make sense with the lack of vegetation on the surface. This soil should be extremely fertile, as in tomatoes the size of cantaloupes, yet there's no plant life to speak of growing down there. I'm running a more detailed analysis to see if there's any indication that the soil ever supported plant life. I'm sending the DNA profile of the protein markers to Sickbay so the Doctor can run an analysis of that."

"Could we be dealing with something similar to those animal-plants we ran into before?" Chakotay asked.

Sassy looked at the screen in confusion. "What are we dealing with? I was told you needed a soil analysis."

"I'll come down and fill you in," Chakotay said. "I'll be bringing Crewman Tassoni with me, I want the two of you to review tricorder readings from the surface, sensor logs and run a thorough soil analysis." He closed the channel and got back to the briefing. "Doctor, work with Ensign Wildman on your own analysis of the soil. Look for traces of energy that routine scans might miss and run that DNA profile that Sassy sent you. Harry, you, Tuvok and Seven get to Astrometrics and refine the sensors, do whatever you have to do, but I want to know the location of every life form bigger than an ant on the planet surface by the time you're done. Tom, you have the bridge. Let's find the captain."

Chakotay was wandering the corridors. He had been in the garden for a while until his wife had gently reminded him that 'you can't help shoots grow by pulling them higher.' Getting the message that his hovering was not helpful, he'd started to go to Astrometrics but something stopped him. He couldn't shake the image of Tassoni alone in the garden with Sassy. They needed Tassoni's geological expertise, but there was a strong, inexplicable urge to throw the man in the brig. He located Dalby and Tabor and asked them to just hang out in the garden and discretely keep an eye on things there. Feeling a little less apprehensive, he stopped by Astrometrics and Sickbay only to be told in both places that there wouldn't be anything to report for at least an hour, probably more. The turbolift stopped at Deck Eight and he started to exit. Changing his mind, he re-entered the turbolift to go to his quarters. Tom reported everything quiet on the Bridge, so he pulled his medicine bundle out. The agitation and restlessness that he was feeling came from something his spirit was trying to tell him. Before it interfered with the business that his mind needed to attend to, he decided to take the next hour to talk to his spirit guide.

""Akoochimoyah," he began the familiar ritual. Idly it occurred to him that he'd performed the ritual far more often since Sassy had come into his life. "I am far from the sacred bones of my ancestors. I am far from the sacred places of my grandfathers, but perhaps there is a spirit who will embrace me and give me the answers I seek." Everything swirled around him for several seconds and when his world came back into focus, his spirit guide was right in front of him. "What is it?" he asked impatiently.

"Everything and nothing," the spirit guide replied.

"You sound like you've been spending too much time with Sassy's spirit guide," Chakotay grumbled.

"Perhaps the fault lies in the question and not the answer."

Sitting on a nearby log, he took a deep breath. Slowly he emptied his lungs of air, settling his spirit. "Fine, Captain Janeway is missing so I don't have a lot of time. I feel agitated, like there's something wrong but I can't bring it into focus."

"Agitation is not a synonym for blame," his spirit guide pointed out.

A surge of annoyance flashed through him followed closely by truth. "You're right, I blame myself. I shouldn't have recommended Tassoni for the away mission. Given his track record with alien races--"

"No one else can represent your conscience," his spirit guide interrupted.

"What do you mean by that?" he demanded. "I take responsibility, I shouldn't have trusted an Equinox crew member on an away team with Captain Janeway. He was the closest one to her when they were attacked and she was the only one who didn't come back. I should have . . . " his voice trailed off.

"The sun rises," the spirit guide observed.

"I should have been leading the away team. I should have put up a stronger argument, objected more strenuously to her leading the away team. I only made a token objection; I failed in my duty as First Officer and I was projecting that guilt onto a man who did nothing to deserve it."

"Anyone can become angry--that is easy, but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right reason and in the right way--that is not easy."

"Aristotle," Chakotay sighed. He sat on the log beside his spirit guide quietly mulling things over. He knew Captain Janeway was headstrong and, given what they knew at the time, she would have gone no matter what objections he'd raised. Then again, he would have insisted on being part of the away team if Sassy had been part of it. Did he value her and everything she represented more than his duty to his captain and crew? His life was supposed to be a balance between the two worlds that he straddled; which world would he choose if he was forced to decide between them? Deep in thought, he was startled when a face appeared in the ground at his feet. He jumped up and looked over at his spirit guide dozing on the log and then he looked back to the face in the dirt. There was a sound like the face was trying to speak, but no words formed. He knelt down to touch the face and his finger sank into the cheek easily. The face disintegrated, dirt once again. The spirit guide hadn't stirred at all, which meant that the face had nothing to do with his inner turmoil. If it wasn't a personal demon, what did the face mean?

Sassy heard the door to the garden open and knew that it was Chakotay without looking up from her work. She waited until he was almost directly behind her before addressing him. "We don't have any theories yet. We're still running a comparison between the sensor readings and the tricorder scans."

"I need to talk to you, privately," Chakotay said. He led Sassy over to an unoccupied bench in a corner of the garden. Keeping his voice low, he asked, "Is it possible that those aliens on the planet surface are telepathic?"

"Because telepathy is such an integral part of botanical sciences," she noted somewhat sardonically. "Chakotay, that is so far out of my expertise I have to wonder why you came to me with that question instead of the doctor."

Pulling his medicine bundle out from under his arm, he laid it on his lap before beginning his explanation. "I was talking with my spirit guide and I saw something."

Now they were in an area she was comfortable with. "What did you see?"

"A face in the dirt at my feet," he said. "I was thinking over what my spirit guide said when it just rose up in the dirt like it was made of dirt."

"What did your guide say?"

Chakotay gestured toward his medicine bundle as if it held his guide inside the rolled-up blanket. "That's just it, my guide didn't react to it at all; it didn't even acknowledge the face."

Sassy understood what he was saying. "If it had anything to do with your vision quest, your spirit guide would have been aware of it. So you think it has something to do with the soil sample brought back from the surface."

"Maybe there's some sort of telepathic residue that I picked up on during my vision quest," he suggested.

"Why don't I try a vision quest of my own," she mused.

"What will that accomplish?"

Sassy caressed his cheek. "No offense, aalm, but I've spent more time on the spirit plane than you have; I might be able to make a connection or at least get a stronger sense of what you experienced." She noted the defensive set of his jaw and tried to make him understand. "Have you ever actually touched your spirit guide? It's part of you, Chakotay, not something to be worshiped or idolized or even consulted like a sage in a temple on a mountain. Touching your spirit guide forges a stronger connection to yourself; I have a close connection to my guide which makes me stronger on the spirit plane than one who has never touched their guide."

He pulled away from the touch of her hand and stood up. "This is hardly the time or place for a lecture on my spirituality."

Standing up, she faced him, keeping her voice low. "Your spirituality is not in question; I wouldn't even be here on Voyager if you didn't have a strong connection to your heritage. Your nature is divided, mine is not. If you're right about these aliens, they may turn out to be like those aliens in chaotic space who could only communicate with you; but, we won't know if I don't try. At the very least I might be able to confirm your theory and since time is of the essence, I need to borrow your akoonah--meditating would take too long. While I'm trying to find the connection you felt, you can see if the Doctor has anything that would indicate whether the aliens are telepathic."

Chakotay pulled the akoonah out of the bundle and handed it to her. "Thank you, mi aalm."

"Angelo," Sassy said. "Take what we've got to Sickbay and compare notes with the Doctor. I'm going to stay here and try something else."

Nodding to Tassoni, Chakotay gestured toward the door. "You can fill me in on the way, Angelo."

After a non-productive meeting with the Doctor in Sickbay, Chakotay left Tassoni with Wildman and the EMH to review their collective findings for anything that might have been overlooked. He went to Astrometrics to see what they'd come up with.

"I regret to inform you that we have been unsuccessful in isolating the life forms who attacked us on the planet," Tuvok informed him the minute he entered the room.

Joining the three behind the computer station, Chakotay gestured toward the large display screen at the back of the room. "Pull up the most detailed scan you've done."

Seven efficiently complied. "Do you know what you are looking for, Commander?"

"Not exactly," Chakotay replied. "Is there anything unusual about what's not there?"

"What do you mean, Commander?" Harry asked.

Chakotay turned away from the display to face them. "I think they may have some sort of telepathic power. Is it possible that they're mentally deflecting our scans somehow?"

Harry started working at the console. "What's not there might be where we start looking."

"What is the basis for this hypothesis?" Tuvok wanted to know.

"Something I saw during a vision quest earlier," Chakotay said. "Did you pick up on anything down on the surface? Did you have any sense of them before they attacked?"

"I did not," Tuvok replied. "Are you suggesting that they attempted to make contact with you?"

Chakotay thought back to the face in the dirt. "No, it wasn't really a communication, more like a ghost of a presence; it was very faint. The Doctor and Ensign Wildman isolated genetic markers in the soil that contained fragments of double helix strands. They're working with Tassoni on the results of the multivariate spectral analysis of the soil." He was interrupted by the arrival of Ceshlyta carrying the soil sample and the akoonah.

"The computer said I could find you here," Sassy explained.

"Well?" Chakotay prompted her.

She set the soil container down on top of a work station. "You were right, there's definitely something in the soil. It didn't show up on any of our scans, but it's there."

"What exactly," Tuvok asked, "is 'it'?"

"It felt like a presence, but it was almost as if there wasn't enough of it there to coalesce. It was trying to convey something, to communicate. It didn't feel violent or aggressive to me, I got more of a sense of desperation from it."

Chakotay reached out to her for his akoonah. "I'll beam down to the surface and attempt to communicate with them."

"No, sir," Tuvok stated calmly.

"Tuvok?"

The Vulcan arched an eyebrow in an expression of long-suffering patience. "I cannot permit you to leave this ship under any circumstances. With Captain Janeway missing, you are the acting Captain which would logically make me acting First Officer with the commensurate responsibility for your welfare. After the incident on New Earth, I cannot, in good conscience, allow both Captain Janeway and you to be off this ship at the same time. Your place and responsibilities are here."

"Not bucking for your own command, Tuvok?" Chakotay noted wryly.

"No."

Harry stared at the dirt in the container. "So what do we do?"

Seven offered an observation. "We do have another individual capable of attempting communication."

"Absolutely not!" Chakotay snapped. "They've already proven themselves hostile, I will not send her down there."

Sassy reached out to take his hand and discretely squeezed it reassuringly. "I didn't feel any aggression; I think it's worth trying to communicate with them. This might be nothing more than a misunderstanding."

Only the fact that they were not alone kept him from responding. He tried to find a suitable way to voice his objection, but the lump in his throat kept the words from coming out.

"Kathryn is my friend, Chakotay, if there's anything I can do to help get her back safely, I have to try. If I return the soil to the ground the instant I beam down, they may understand that we mean them no harm and want to talk."

"You're anthropomorphizing these things," Chakotay argued. "There's no evidence that they're anything but violent, stupid animals."

"Respect for life is never the wrong foot to step with," Sassy said. "Tuvok is right about you not leaving the ship. With Kathryn missing, the crew needs to know that you're here on Voyager. If it doesn't work, you can beam me back and try something else. Right now there is nothing else to try."

Chakotay looked at Tuvok. "Yes, there is. Mindmeld with it."

Tuvok looked back at Chakotay. "The dirt?"

"You're a Vulcan, there's a mind in that soil so do a Vulcan mindmeld with it."

"With the dirt?"

"That's an order," Chakotay commanded.

Harry picked up the container and handed it to Tuvok. "If I remember correctly from history class at the Academy, Ambassador Spock once did a mindmeld with a rock."

Tuvok took the container. "To be precise, it was a Horta."

Chakotay paced the length of the transporter room, the set lines of his tightly-clenched jaw keeping Ayala from saying a word. Every Vulcan onboard had attempted a meld, every crewmember with any predisposition toward telepathy had tried--with and without the akoonah; while a couple of them had gotten a sense of something, no one had been able to make as much of a connection as either Sassy or he. Inevitably, Sassy had beamed down accompanied by Tuvok. They both had subdermal transponders implanted in their arms as a precaution and Tuvok was maintaining an open comm link, but there was no way to know how Sassy was doing on the spirit plane. This was his punishment for allowing his worlds to fall out of balance, for becoming too comfortable in his traditional world and neglecting the responsibilities of his modern world. Now both worlds were in turmoil. He checked the ship's chronometer again; they had been down there for more than an hour.

At the sound of her voice over Tuvok's comm link, he spun so quickly that he nearly fell. He sighed with relief and nodded to Ayala at Tuvok's request for transport.

"I made contact," Sassy exclaimed the instant that she materialized. "You are not going to believe this, it was so incredible!"

Chakotay held out his hand to help her down from the transporter pad. "Where is Captain Janeway?"

"She's fine."

Tuvok finished checking the sensor data from the planet for the Captain's lifesign with no success. "That was not the question."

Sassy closed her eyes and sighed. "I know, it's just kind of complicated."

Chakotay hit his commbadge. "Senior staff, report to the conference room." He gestured toward the door. "Let's see if we can un-complicate it."

Ten minutes later, everyone was settled in their seats at the conference table with Chakotay once again at the head of the table. Ceshlyta took a deep breath, trying to organize her racing thoughts and began. "The energy that we were picking up from the soil wasn't residue, it was the life form--just not enough to make its presence known."

Tom was lost. "You're saying the aliens are dirt?"

"No, the planet itself is alive," Sassy tried to make them understand. "I can't explain it and it doesn't know where it came from or how it came to be, but the planet is a life form."

"Where is Captain Janeway?" Chakotay asked.

"It was just trying to communicate, they weren't attacking to hurt the away team."

Chakotay looked at her.

Sassy's gesture was a mixture of an expression of futility and an attempt to soothe the others, "I don't know where she is at the moment, but I know she's fine."

Tuvok sat forward. "Did you see or speak with the Captain? Did they say anything about where she was?"

"No," she sighed. "It's not really an individual or even totally sentient; we didn't talk, it was more like a communion of our spirits. We connected and it was unbelievable. My entire life I've strived to be one with the natural world and for the time that I was communing with the planet, I was in an incredibly literal sense."

"Ceshlyta, please," Chakotay interrupted. He could see that she was excited about whatever had happened on the planet, but there were more important things to consider at the moment.

"The people in the city are taking life-force from the planet," she said tersely. "They're killing it little by little. When our away team beamed down, it tried to make them understand that it was there so that they would stop."

Harry spoke up. "But we're not the ones--"

"It can't understand that," Sassy replied. "It has no sense of past or future, it simply exists; time has no meaning to it. Self-awareness is one thing, the ability for abstract thought is another and, while it is self-aware, it doesn't seem to have abstract thought processes. All it knows is that the 'place up there' takes energy from it and that energy is part of what makes it alive. It knows that it's dying, but it doesn't know how to stop it and it can't communicate. It's trying to survive, it doesn't want to die and that makes it alive whether it can add two and two or not."

Chakotay laid his hand on hers, tacitly quieting her. Her voice had gotten very emotional as she spoke and it was obvious that she'd make a powerful connection with this life-form. He couldn't afford emotion until Captain Janeway was back aboard Voyager. "Nobody is saying that it isn't a life. Did you ask about Captain Janeway?"

"Yes and it sort of wants to negotiate."

"Negotiate?" Chakotay echoed.

Sassy looked down at the surface of the table. "It wants us to stop killing it. It will return Kathryn when we make the others stop destroying it."

Tuvok spoke first. "Did you agree to that?"

"I didn't have to," she said softly. "We were connected, it could feel that I wanted to make the killing stop but that I didn't know how. I told it that I knew others who might know how to stop the death and that I would come back after I talked to . . . you."

"Harry," Chakotay looked over at the ensign. "What's the status on your scans?"

"Still running," he responded. "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Tom spoke up. "What about phasers? If it's alive, we can hurt it."

"NO!" Sassy yelled. "All it wants is to live, why can't we help it survive? Why can't we just send a message into the city telling them that they're killing a life form?"

"Perhaps they already know and do not care," Seven suggested.

Harry agreed. "That might be why they elevated the city to begin with."

"Unless someone goes in," the Doctor pointed out, "There'd be no way we could be sure they even understood the message much less believed it."

Neelix offered another viewpoint. "They might not stop even if they did understand and believe the message."

Tuvok steepled his fingers in front of his body. "Regardless, the Prime Directive precludes making contact with the city."

"Chakotay," Sassy began.

"I know!" he snapped. His tone softened but didn't entirely lose the frustrated edge. "I just don't know what we can do about it right now. I'll consider everything and inform you of my decision. Harry, you and Seven keep working on giving me another option. Dismissed."

Everyone filed out to return to their duty stations leaving Chakotay alone with Sassy. He avoided her gaze. "I need a report on everything that happened down there, the sooner the better."

"This planet is everything we believe in," Sassy said quietly. "It's the embodiment of our spirituality, the Gaia Hypothesis in living color and it's being massacred little by little."

Chakotay steeled himself against an emotional response. He had responsibilities to consider beyond what was right or wrong. "Put it in your report and have it on my desk as soon as possible. I'll take it into consideration."

Chakotay was reviewing files on the computer in his office. He knew he should be in the ready room, but he had a serious decision to make and wanted the more familiar surroundings of his office. The Prime Directive stipulated that the life of a Starfleet officer was expendable in order to adhere to non-interference with a culture. They weren't in Federation space, but Captain Janeway had insisted on strict adherence to Starfleet regulations from the very beginning--it was important to her that they not lose their way on their journey back; by everything on the screen in front of him, they should break orbit and leave. He had to find a solution. He didn't know how long they could just sit in orbit, but he could hear Captain Janeway's voice telling him that he had to keep going and get the crew home; just like she ordered Tuvok to do when they were trapped on New Earth. The door chime sounded and he shut off the screen with a disgusted sigh. "Come."

Sassy entered carrying a tray, which she set on his desk. She picked up a PADD from the tray and handed it to him. "Everything about the away mission from the instant I arrived. I also brought you something to eat and your medicine bundle."

"Mi aalm, . . . "

She held a hand up to forestall his objection. " 'Ask questions from the heart and you will be answered from the heart.' Your heart is where you find balance between your mind and your soul; that is where you will find the answer to this. The mind will not see beyond an empty stomach, however, so you need to eat if you want to think clearly. I'll be in the garden."

He nodded but didn't reply as she left. Almost mechanically he started eating, his mind on the PADD detailing her experience on the surface. A life form in pain and crying out for help couldn't be ignored; even Captain Jean-Luc Picard had acted to intervene on behalf of an alien life form at Farpoint. The difference was that the humanoids there had invited the Federation to the planet. Here was a comparable situation but without the invitation--not even an acknowledgement of their existence. There were many examples of how violations of the Prime Directive had been disastrous to a society. Sigma Iotia II, Ekos and Omega IV were drilled into every cadet at the Academy until they could recite the details in their sleep. There had been situations where intervention had been warranted. On Drema IV and Boraal II, the very existence of the entire population had been at stake and the situation was resolved without cultural contamination. Here was a life whose continued existence was in question, but how could Voyager resolve the problem without cultural contamination?

Finishing the meal that Sassy had brought him, he reached for the medicine bundle, his hand resting on it while his mind and spirit wrestled with the idea of a vision quest now. His heart finally made the decision and he picked it up. Dimming the lights, he moved to an open area on the floor and carefully opened the bundle.

Chakotay heard Sassy before he saw her. He walked into the garden and heard her humming along with the ever-present music playing softly in the background. She was up in one of the trees pruning back some of the excess growth. Careful to not startle her, he got her attention and helped her down. "I'm ordering you to beam down to the planet and say whatever you need to in order to get the planet to physically take you to Captain Janeway. As soon as you're with her, you'll hit your transponder and we'll lock on and beam you both out. Once you're back onboard, we'll break orbit and leave."

"You can't order me to do that," Sassy replied softly.

"Ceshlyta--" he began.

She covered his lips with her fingers. "You cannot take this burden away from me and that is the only reason you made it an order. The decision was yours to make, your burden to bear; the deception and betrayal of a life is my burden to bear. I will not part from my chieftain's path, no matter how short or beautiful the byway may seem. It is not the decision I would have made, but it is the decision you feel is the best course of action and that is all I need to know."

Chakotay sat down and pulled her down to sit beside him. "I can't find a way to resolve this situation without making things worse. The easiest thing to do would be to relocate the life asking for help except that moving the planet out from under the city is just not feasible, even for B'Elanna's talents that's asking a bit much. I hate the idea of turning my back on any life asking for help, but anything we do to intervene will affect the people in the city. We won't be here to monitor the situation afterward so whatever we do, they'll be left to deal with things on their own. If we disable their energy-gathering technology, it could cause a resource shortage that might result in innocent deaths. If we disable the city and force them to land, they're at the mercy of the planet--a life that you, yourself, says has no higher cognitive functions. We can't know how it would act if those people weren't out of reach. Even if we do contact the city, we can't know what effect that would have on their beliefs or society; it could cause mass rioting for all we know. I don't like this situation, but we didn't cause it. All I want to do is get Captain Janeway back and get away from here without causing any harm to any living thing involved in this mess. I wouldn't ask you to go back down there if there were any other way to get the Captain back without hurting the planet. I know what I'm asking--"

"But it's the lesser of the evils facing us," she finished his thought. "It's not what I was hoping to hear and it also means that you won't get a chance to connect with it yourself. It was an unbelievable spiritual experience."

"My responsibility is here."

Sassy leaned over to brush her lips against his. "The greater the power, the more gently it should be wielded. For all of the power you can wield from Voyager's bridge, you chose the gentlest solution possible. I'll need the akoonah to make contact. Tuvok can come down with me and beam back with the akoonah before it takes me to Kathryn."

"I have the akoonah here and Tuvok is waiting in Transporter Room One."

Sassy opened her eyes and exhaled slowly, a solitary tear trickling down her cheek. It was done, the planet was going to take her to Kathryn. She suspected that it knew--it was hard to be deceptive on the spirit plane and yet it had agreed to take her to Kathryn anyway. She stood up, wriggling her toes in the dirt. It had been a long time since she'd felt ground beneath her bare feet. Removing that barrier between the planet surface and herself seemed appropriate so she had left her shoes sitting beside the transporter pad. Tuvok was waiting patiently and accepted the akoonah when she handed it to him. She answered his unasked question with a single nod and waited while the Vulcan beamed back to Voyager.

Alone on the surface, she knelt down and swiftly sketched out the ancient symbol of protection. The chamozi complete, she laid her hands flat on the ground and uttered a brief prayer in the ancient tongue. "May a benevolent spirit see this and have mercy on you."

Standing back up, she closed her tear-filled eyes and waited for the planet to swallow her.

As soon as the Doctor released her from Sickbay, Sassy went to her quarters expecting to find Chakotay. She'd been a little surprised and worried when he hadn't been in Sickbay to meet them. He had called to verify that both Kathryn and she had transported safely, but he had talked with the EMH, not even asking to speak with her. When he wasn't in their quarters, she used the computer to locate him in the garden. He was sitting on a bench, staring into the holographic waterfall.

"We broke orbit and resumed course an hour ago," he said numbly in response to her hand coming to rest lightly on his shoulder.

She reached around to cup his chin and gently urged him to look at her. Tracing the lines of his tattoo with her other hand, she whispered softly. "I'm sorry, Chakotay."

"What for?" he asked, momentarily confused. "Captain Janeway's back and unhurt; you accomplished your mission."

Kneeling at his feet, she looked up into his gentle, brown eyes. "No, I helped get Kathryn back but I failed in my mission here. I'm supposed to be your help-mate, your spiritual comfort as you travel your path. I made your decision more difficult than it needed to be. Instead of being a source of comfort, I was a source of discord."

Chakotay reached for her braid and began unbinding it. "You are always a source of comfort to me and, as you have frequently reminded me, I am of two worlds, you are not. You live your spirituality in every minute of every day. You are your own person, a strong woman; you're not a mere reflection of my soul and I wouldn't want you to be. You didn't fail me. I condemned a life to a slow, lingering death and you accepted that decision."

"There's one more thing," she confessed, her eyes downcast.

Lifting her chin with a single finger, his voice was soft. "What is it, mi aalm?"

"After Tuvok beamed back to the ship, I drew a chamozi in the dirt and prayed for the mercy of a benevolent spirit."

His eyes closed and his lips tightened for a second. He took a deep breath and shook his head. "Well, that's not technology or interference with the situation," he reasoned, cradling her face in his palm. "There's no way to know if the people in the city will even see it. Of course, if the planet decides that it's a means of communication and starts re-creating it all over the place, it could cause quite a mystery to anybody who does find it. You'll have to include that in your report and it'll be up to Captain Janeway to determine if you violated any Federation law, but I don't see how it could be wrong. A part of me is very glad that you thought to do that."

Sassy kissed his palm. "Let's go home."

"Not yet," he said. "I've been sitting here thinking. I know it isn't Earth's winter solstice or Treban's or even that planet's and it's not much, but a prayer of guidance and direction for this system's sun to give of its strength is the only thing I can offer that life."

"Do you want to be alone?"

"I'd like you stay, if you want," he replied.

She put her hands on his knees to push herself up and held her hand out to him. "I haven't had a chance to recycle the cuttings yet and I'm pretty sure there are some twigs of just the right size. We can substitute leaves from healing herbs here in the garden instead of using replicated tobacco."

Chakotay laid his hand in hers and smiled. "I'll get the rest of the necessary supplies and meet you under the apple tree."

FINIS


End file.
